Making Animals Visible in Sustainability Accounting with Critical Look at Financial Valuation

Although human rights have widely been addressed in scientific communities, animal rights and relevant challenges have mainly been neglected. Despite all unfortunate accidents that happen to animals, their unfavorable status has rarely been discussed in the literature on sustainable development or sustainability accounting. Nevertheless, the economic analysis of nature inhabitants and animals is an approach that has gained in popularity in accounting, finance, and economics over the recent years. This study promotes the notion that not only does the foregoing approach fail to result in environmental monitoring, but it also allows people to have economic reasons to justify destroying nature and harming animals. This study aims to offer a strategy to make animals visible in sustainability accounting by emphasizing the avoidance of materialism and financial valuation of natural inhabitants and phenomena. This study utilizes a comprehensive literature review and critical analysis of relevant sources to develop a scientific argument that contributes to the ongoing discourse in the field of sustainability accounting. This study proposes to separate animals and emphasize their importance in the sustainability model. It also suggests avoiding exaggerations in financial and economic valuation and focusing on the environment, animals, and other elements of nature. The proposed solution is expected to be a critical approach that can underlie further discussions and analyses.